Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Israel's Ultra-Orthodox Problem

Israel’s Haredi communities are booming. Why that Spells trouble For the country’s future.

The impact will reach well beyond the neighborhood quarrels over segregated buses or modest attire—another Haredi preoccupation that has stirred tensions across Israel. Most ultra-Orthodox Jews lack the skills to work in a modern economy, having studied little or no math and science beyond primary school (their curriculum focuses almost entirely on religious texts such as the Torah and Talmud). As a result, more than 60 percent live below the poverty line, compared with 12 percent among non-Haredi Jews. Most also opt out of military service, which is compulsory for other Israelis. The net effect: as the Haredi community expands, the burden of both taxation and conscription falls on fewer and fewer Israelis. (Secular Israelis joke bitterly that one third of the country serves in the military, one third participates in the workforce, and one third pays taxes—but that it’s all the same third) (my em).

As is often the case in closed societies, the extremists tend to set the tone.

This is a microcosm of right-wing religious philosophy here, played out on a much smaller playing field. Difference is Canada and Mexico aren't looking for a chance to destroy us.

All the Arab nations have to do to destroy Israel is wait for bumpkins like the Haredi to do it from within.

Israel is a failed socialist state where wingnut welfare would have already collapsed their economy if they were not being propped up by U.S. wealth transfers. Time to stop that, I think. Israel won't solve their own problems as long as they think they'll be bailed out by the United States. Just sayin'.

Gordon

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"... That's US here at the Brain! Sittin' all alone out in the cold, thanklessly freezin' our beboops off, lookin' for a chance to lob a few at the enemy and praying for a secondary explosion, wonderin' if it's all worth it or if it will make any difference in the scheme of things ..." - Gordon